Jaron Lowenstein ‘Put a Lot of Work Into’ Getting His Country Music on the Radio

When twin brothers Evan and Jaron Lowenstein first emerged on the music scene in 1994, they were trying to make a name for themselves in the pop-rock world. As Evan and Jaron, the two recorded three studio albums; their signature hit, "Crazy for This Girl," peaked at No. 15 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2000.

Following that success, in the late 2000s, Jaron Lowenstein morphed into Jaron and the Long Road to Love -- a solo act, despite what the name suggests — after his brother decided to start a family and take on a new business venture. In 2009, his debut single, "Pray for You," earned a Top 15 (No. 13) spot on the Billboard country charts.

Below, Lowenstein recalls his memories hearing his first records on the radio.

The first time I heard my first song on the radio, my brother and I were leaving a radio station up in Hartford, Conn.; we were on a radio tour in 1998. Our first song was a single called "And Then She Says."

We were leaving the station after doing the visit, and the program director told us they were going to throw it on the air and try it out. We turned the station on when we left, and our song started coming on. We were like, "Oh, my God, we’re on the radio! This is the coolest thing ever!" It was probably a small station; it wasn’t with a big reach or anything, but it could have been a college station and we would have flipped out. We had our record rep driving us, and we were sitting in the back, jumping up and down.

If I could rewrite history, we would have grabbed our phones and start[ed] texting our friends, but we didn’t do that back then. I’m sure we picked up our phones — because they did have cell phones back then — and called our friends saying, "Oh my God, we’re on the radio!"

The first time I heard "Pray for You" on the radio, I heard it online actually. It was [DJ] Michael J at WMZQ [in Washington, DC]; he had thrown it into a test bin, or tried it in the afternoon drive. Somebody emailed me and told me it was going to happen, so I listened online, and it was the first time that I recall hearing it on the radio. I know that the song was played first on WYCD in Detroit, but the first time I heard it was by Michael J.

It was a different feeling: This time around, it was my return to music, and when I came back, I told people that I had experience. I was Evan and Jaron, and I had a lot of friends who told me the truth: They said, "Listen dude, nobody cares anymore … You’re going to have to start over from square one." And I did; I put a lot of work into it. So it was nice to know that I had gotten back and had that feeling again.

My brother and I always joked that we were one-hit wonders, even though we had three songs on the charts. But we know that we were blessed and lucky as heck to even get one hit, so to get a second song on the radio was double good. It was super exciting!

This story was originally written by Pat Gallagher, and revised by Angela Stefano.